


Fortress

by teddy_parade



Category: Klance (Voltron) - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Bonding, Gay Keith (Voltron), Langst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), klance fluff, klangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 05:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11867577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teddy_parade/pseuds/teddy_parade
Summary: Keith is taking the discovery that Shiro isn't actually Shiro really badly. Lance is thinking of a career change from Space Pilot to interior designer.Lance offers to find Keith when the sleep deprived team haven’t seen him in a few days. Lance and Keith had become much better friends over the last months and he wanted to do everything in his power to help the sad paladin and bring their leader home. Every passing day brings them closer and closer, changes of heart assured.Written after S2 when Keith was still a paladin but after clone Shiro was a thing.





	Fortress

Fortress  
___________________

Lance walked timidly into the control room where the rest of the crew were already hard at work, careful not to disturb anyone. It was as if no one had slept a wink since the discovery that the Shiro that had been with them for weeks wasn’t actually their leader. Finding the real Shiro had been the team’s main priority as soon as they had found out, not even Lotor and his gang held a higher focus. Ever since they killed Zarkon, Shiro had been on their radar but it was always about saving the universe. It was something about getting Shiro back only to have him essentially ripped away from them again lit a fire underneath the whole team and no one had done much else since. 

Pidge had the darkest circles that drooped out from underneath her glasses and Allura’s hair was an array of loose strands and lack of care instead of her usual tidy bun. Coran wasn’t even cracking optimistic lines of wisdom as he rubbed his temples with frustration. Hunk was sat on the floor surrounded by about six or seven screens, searching through data trying to find patterns or any possible link in the lions mechanics that could potentially lead to Shiro’s whereabouts or what had happened to him. 

He had expressed late one night to Lance that he knew it was pointless, he had searched every bolt in the darn thing, but he would keep going dammit until he had searched every bolt again and every line of code until he had found his friend. And Keith, well, Keith had taken it the worst out of everyone. The training room had never been in such as state as he took out his anger, robot after robot. He had however, since then, tired this method and moved on to helping the team, working tirelessly to devise plans and make connections. 

Lance wasn't even sure if he’d seen Keith take a single break. Not that anyone had taken many. He stopped talking to clone Shiro; not even acknowledging his existence. This Shiro hadn’t even done anything wrong, to him, he was the real Shiro. But to Keith, being created in itself was enough to despise the man/alien/robot.

Lance knew he was late today. He had fallen asleep in the shower while getting ready to continue the search, deciding that during his exhaustion he would take one as he didn’t really feel like eating; only to collapse under the pressure and warm sensation of the water. 

He walked further into the room, Pidge was the first one to take any notice to him. Lance expected a snide remark about how he finally joined the team, and then Allura to scold her saying that they were all just tired. But nothing came. Just a blank expression and mindless stare before she returned to her laptop.

Lance looked at her small body in despair. She had lost so much, she didn’t deserve this, no one did. The blue paladin took his position in between Allura and Coran and resumed his task of scanning coordinate after coordinate until the whole universe had been checked. 

They had originally agreed that it wouldn’t be the best use of their time, but they needed to do something to keep their hands busy as they racked their brains for an answer or game plan, and they were growing desperate.

No one really spoke as they worked, no one even lifted their gaze as hunk let out an exasperated sigh and left the room resting both hands on his head while shaking it out of disappointment and defeat. They were like zombies, typing and dragging and scanning, day after day. Lance new that this wasn’t good for them and that working like this was probably working backwards, in fact, in the early days of the mission, Lance would have forced everyone to sleep and recharge, but if he couldn’t even listen to his own words, why should anyone else.

After about twenty dobashes of nothing but the angry clicking of keyboards and hopeless sighs, Hunk returned carrying a tray of six plates with rich green altean goop piled high on top. He was always good at making sure the team ate. Hunk had quickly became the mum friend of the group and when he wasn’t tirelessly working he was covering people with blankets or getting water to keep them hydrated.

He went around the room placing a plate in front of each team member, he even went as far as to balance one on Pidges keyboard so that she would have no choice but to stop working. As he finished his lap of the group he placed one down on the table where he had been, only to notice that there was one plate remaining on the tray.

“Hey has anyone seen Keith, he needs his goop.” Announced Hunk, breaking the silence for the first time that morning.  
Lance looked up then. Keith wasn’t anywhere in the room. How had he not noticed! Keith had barely left in the two weeks since Shiro had gone missing.  
“No, I haven’t seen him in two Quintents. Maybe he went back to the training room.” Coran responded, finally looking up from his screen, blinking his sore eyes frantically.  
“Maybe he went to his room, he could have needed a sleep, he didn’t look well.” Contributed Allura. 

While the team suggested potential places that the red paladin and new leader of Voltron could be Lance thought about something that Keith had once mentioned to him after he had first found out that he was part Galra. Keith had told him about the one place that he went to to recharge or think, maybe he could be there.

“I- I think I know.” Croaked Lance, clearing his voice that had been rusty from lack of use. “I’ll take his food to him.”  
He pushed himself off of his stool and wobbled over to Hunk. He took the plate off the tray and observed it. When was the last time he had seen Keith eat?  
“Ok buddy, see you in a bit.” Said Hunk, yawning.  
“Thanks man,” replied Lance with a tired forced smile. It’s like he wasn’t even himself anymore. “Make sure you take a break eventually too.”

With that, Lance continued out of the room and began making his way to the hangars. If Keith was in a bad way, he knew he would go to Red for comfort, or Black, thought Lance.  
The shorter teen had told him that he found comfort in opening up to her. Maybe he did the same with the Black lion, for bonding. Maybe he would be down with Red, trying to get her to listen again.

As soon as he approached the Black lion he knew that Keith was in there as Black’s eyes lit up and her shields went up in defense of her paladin.  
“Come on Girl!” He yelled, pleading to her. “I’m not gonna hurt him, look I brought him food, I wanna help him.” Lance attempted a grin as he held the plate out to the giant robot. 

The lion’s eyes glowed more intensely for a few seconds before they returned to their normal colour. It seemed as though she had made her decision as the shield dropped and Black bent down to let Lance inside.  
“Thank You.” He yelled sweetly at the robot who closed her mouth and returned to a standing position as soon a Lance was inside.

Lance took quick and quiet steps up to the cockpit. He didn’t want to intrude on Keith or disturb any hard thinking that may be going on. He knew from experience that it wasn’t a good idea. But Lance knew that thinking was the last thing going on when he reached the large room, larger than any of the others by far. 

The room was seemingly empty, the only sign that his friend was even in there was a small leg hanging off the pilot’s chair that was visible from where Lance was standing. It was only when Lance started to move slowly closer to the boy that he realised that Keith had fallen into a deep, blackout sleep, probably due to the lack of sleep that had been weighing on all of them for longer than anyone could recall. 

Lance cringed at Keith’s positioning on the chair as he made his way around the room to place the goo on the control panel in front of them. He was curled in a small ball with the leg that wasn’t hanging off the seat, tightly tucked under his small, muscular frame. One arm was wrapped around his middle while the other was propped up on his bent leg, supporting his head. Lance didn’t even know that anyone's neck could bend like that but he did know that it probably definitely shouldn’t. Hid head was nestled right down in between his arm and chest, sporting more chins than humanly possible; then again Keith was not fully human either. His usually fluffy mullet was pulled back into a messy bun, although it had loosened substantially and his now greasy fringe was covering part of his face as he snored softly, like a low pur.

He must have moved like this in his sleep, decided Lance. Not even a cryptid like Keith would find that position natural or comfortable. And if Lance’s math was correct, Keith had been like that for hours and would be sure to wake up with the most horrible neck pain.

He decided not to wake the sleeping boy up. He would be cranky and moody, and Lance just didn’t want to deal with it. But he did still want to help his friend. He ran from the Black lion and back up through the castle. Never in the last week would he have thought he would contain this much energy but it was there and he was running, sprinting, he even felt his happy goofy side return in the form of thoughts in his head. 

Boy was he gonna be the world’s best friend after this. Keith would have to stop being rude to him, he would be at his feet… Okay, maybe the thoughts were coming from a more delirious part of his mind now but he was still excited to see Keith’s face.

He went to his own room first, ripping the blanket from his bed and snatching up both of his pillows, one under each arm; he hadn’t been using them anyway. Next he went to Keith’s room and did the same. Lance stopped right before leaving the small dark bedroom, turning around and taking it all in. It looked untouched; nothing on the shelves, not even Keith’s blade that Lance had forgotten to watch out for while hastily grabbing keith’s bedding. 

The room looked un lived in. It didn’t even smell like Keith, or like any of the other unoccupied guest rooms. It smelt like nothing, like people had forgotten it was there at all. How long had it even been again, wondered Lance. He thought he counted one week and three days, but who knows.

He stole a few pillows from other rooms in the castle that didn’t belong to any of the other team members. With a hefty stack that was hard to run with or see around, Lance made his way back to the hangars. He didn’t even need to ask the mighty black lion to let him in this time, as if she knew that his intention was to help the distressed boy inside, in fact she could probably feel all of Keith’s thoughts and emotions. 

Lance ignored the quip in the back of his head joking about Keith not having emotions and focused on his plan; almost, he couldn’t stop the thought getting through about how throughout all of the moving up and down that Black’s head had been doing to let Lance inside, Keith hadn’t stirred once. 

Lance didn’t really bother to sneak, per say, as he entered the cockpit again. He let all of his cargo fall to the floor in a heap as he scoped out the room. He noticed plenty of random hooks to hang up weapons and jutting out metal that had some alternative purpose; perfect. Making as little noise as possible lance hung his own blanket from three hooks, two of which were on one wall and one that was slightly lower on another, stretching it out to it’s full caliber and letting the last corner of the blue material hang freely to create a makeshift door. 

He chucked all of the pillows underneath it making sure that they covered every bit of floor space except for one which he threw over next to the blanket from Keith’s room that he hadn’t used yet. He admired his work momentarily, taking the time to stretch his tired back. He had built close to a hundred if not more blanket forts in his life span, he would gladly say he had become a pro at it. Always a humble victor in his opinion when his one turned out superior to his siblings, but never opposed to helping them to build the ultimate McClain kid HQ. 

He relished in the memories for a moment before bending down to collect the remaining materials into his arms, earning a loud crack from is spine as he did so. He paused, cringing at the sound. He waited in the proceeding silence to see if that had woken Keith, then again, if nothing else had managed to yet, nothing would. Lance pondered whether or not he should check if his friend was still breathing. 

Lance took the blanket and ever so carefully coved the very much alive paladin with it. He tried to make it cover as much of the boy as he could without covering his head. This was easier said than done however due to Keith’s odd position. Lance cursed under his breath as he moved closer, leaning over the chair to move the blanket so it rested under his chin. Lance almost jumped back as Keith’s freezing cold skin came into contact with his warm, tan hands. Maybe he should check for a pulse.

Lance gritted his teeth, pulling a face to himself as he tiptoed away from the Pillot chair, assuring himself again that the red paladin was still sound asleep. Metal armour clinked on the ground, breaking the dead silence as he picked up the pillow. Okay that was the easy part. How much harder could this be. Lance’s goal was to get the fluffy object between his friends tucked up leg and his head. It would be a small improvement on Keith’s fated neck pain but anything would be more comfortable than his current situation. He would thank Lance later. 

This was it. The boss level, the ultimate stealth test, a game of mind and body. Every video game tactic Lance had ver memorised was flooding his brain at this moment. This was it, this was what all of his training had lead up to, all his time at carnivals, paying dollar after dollar for goes at games to win the big prises. It was the ultimate test: Could he get the pillow under the head of the sleeping dragon without waking it and having it breath fire down upon him. 

Lance moved over to the side of the chair closest to where Keith’s head was, leaning his head over the armrest ever so slightly for optimum mobility and vision. Slowly with one hand he moved the pillow over his head and began lowering it down towards Keith’s face. Lance had not taken a single breath since commencing this delicate operation. He gently moved his other hand over to Keith’s bare, pale cheek, not touching it out of fear, still deciding on the best way to do it. One after the other he let just the pad of his finders fall under Keith’s hairless chin, counting to tree first, then five then ten. He ever so slowly moved Keith’s head up off of his leg, so far so good, he thought, as Keith hadn’t even stirred once. 

He had lifted the boy’s head up just enough now to place the pillow delicately down; amazed by his own abilities and how well this was going. He laid the pillow down, letting a breath out as the the air escaped out of it and it settled. Phase two complete. Lastly, Lance began to lower Keith’s head down again, wanting to laugh at how there was no way this was possible. He was so close to completing his task, only having to remove his fingers from the sleeping boy’s face. All was well.

Until in a flash, the whole operation went pear shaped and the red paladin’s violet eyes snapped open. 

“Agghhhhhhh!” Keith’s loud scream bounced of every wall in the room, causing both of them to jump back, Lance sitting back onto his knees on the metal floor and Keith, impossibly squished up on the opposite side of his chair, blanket tangled around the lower half of his body. Keith had also reached behind himself, his hand finding the handle of his blade which was now pointed out to Lance’s throat.

“What the hell, Keith!” Lanced shouted back in fright at the purple weapon pressed to his neck.

“What do you mean, what the hell? What are you doing in here?” He was still clearly frightened from his rude awakening.

“Why do you sleep with that thing with you, you could have killed me.” Lance was no calmer.

“”Protecting myself from idiots like you clearly!” He yelled again. “Besides, you didn’t answer my first question.” He lowered his voice into a more bashful tone, pointing his head down towards his lap and looking up at Lance through his messy disarray of a fringe. His cheeks had gone slightly pink, which Lance guessed was just warmth from sleep. 

“I was bringing you your goo, stupid. It wasn’t my fault you sleep like an extraterrestrial sloth.” lance remarked. 

“I’m, I’m not hungry…” Keith spoke, lowering his voice yet again to just short of a whisper.  
“Keith… buddy, I haven’t seen you eat in days, don’t give me that.” Lance said, relaxing completely and slouching his shoulders.

“I’ve been too busy looking for Shiro, just like everyone else okay.” He tried to explain, his tone suddenly really defensive. 

“Then why don’t you do it with the rest of the team instead of cooped up in here?” Lance questioned genuinely, although it came out slightly more aggressive than he had intended.

“I don’t know, I don’t want every-” Keith went quiet, looking anywhere but Lance. “I’ve been, um, busy, yeah… conducting my own sort of search, kinda, I’m really getting somewhere, I think.” He tried to cover.

Lance wasn’t having any of it.  
“Uh huh, now tell me what you were gonna say first.” Lance folded his arms, he had five siblings, three nieces, and two nephews, he could get anything out of anyone. 

Keith looked him dead in the eye then. A non-trustworthy expression evident in his face. He chewed on his lip so hard that Lance thought he might draw blood, before sighing.

“You know better then anyone that I haven’t been taking this whole thing well. First leading Voltron, then this clone Shiro guy thinks he can just walk in and replace him. Does he think that Shiro means that little to us?” he was getting heated.

“Hey hey…” Lance attempted to sooth. “He didn’t know that he was a clone okay. But that isn’t important, what were you saying Keith.”

“It sounds dumb and I know you are gonna make fun of me for it, but… I didn’t want the team to see me break down, you know? Get angry, break shit… cry… It’s, not what they should be seeing from a leader. So I’ve been staying in here… Being in Black reminds me of Shiro, and what he stood for. Like if I think like him then maybe I could find him, Maybe Black will show me where his is… You probably think it’s dumb. I’m sorry.” He put his head in his hands.

Lance leaped to his feet and put his hand on Keith’s shoulder; he could feel him instantly tense at the interaction. Lance processed his friends words in his mind, trying to fathom a sentence that expressed what he wanted to say. 

In actually truth of the matter, he understood every single word that Keith had said, he had almost lived it. He had tried it too. Going to the observation deck where he and Shiro used to have late night talks when they both couldn’t sleep. He even went and lied down on his leaders bed. It felt wrong, the smell was gone, just like in keith’s room. Maybe he had miscounted how long it had really been. 

“I get it man, I do. I don’t know how to explain it, but I get it, you’re not weird or dumb at all.” He smiled at Keith, rubbing circles into his shoulder with his thumb. 

“Really, um cool.” Keith struggled for words. Lance new that he was grateful, he just had his own way of showing it. Lance tried to help out again and put Keith’s thoughts into words.

“Like this situation is bad enough, feeling alienated from each other makes things so much worse. But just know the team wouldn’t judge you at all, they get it just as much as I do.” He beamed and assuring smile. 

Keith just stared back, returning the gesture slightly only because he knew he probably should.  
Lance waited for a formal response.

“That alien part… was that racist?” Ok maybe Lance had missed the mark a little bit.

“Oh my God Keith, here let me show you.” He grabbed Keith’s hand from his lap and pulled him up off the chair in one swift motion, sending the blanket and pillow tumbling to the ground.

“Lance what are you doing, I already said I don’t want to go out there-” Lance cut him off by grabbing his shoulders and spinning him around so that he could see the fort over the chair. 

Keith stood speechless for a moment, which Lance guessed by his mouth that was hanging open just a bit, that it was a good kind of speechless. 

“You did this? And for me?” He pointed to his chest  
Lance stood behind him, his grin growing as he began nodding like a little kid, proud of his work, before realising that Keith couldn’t see him.

“Uh yeah, I thought that if you were gonna be staying here, you may as well be comfortable, right?” Lance shrugged yet again to himself as Keith continued to stare at the fort.

“I mean, if you don’t like it I can take everything down, I’ll put it back too, um-“

“No!” Keith stopped him. “I lo-like it, very much. Thank you Lance, really.” He finally turned to Lance, smiling up at him.

Lance would never admit outloud that he loved the height difference between them. And not in an advantage, one upping sort of way. He just thought that it made keith look adorable. In a friend way of course, yep, strictly platonic. He just liked that if he wanted to he could rest his chin on Keith head, if they were even ever that close, not that he would ever want to anyway. Lance wondered why he was even thinking about it before snapping back into reality to see Keith already in the fort, sunk into the pillows and looking at the blanket roof.

“I’ll leave you to it then.” Lance shot two finger guns in Keith’s direction. “Give us a shout if you want more goo, get some rest okay.” He shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, deciding when the appropriate time to leave would be. 

“Oh, are you leaving now, okay…” Keith said sheepishly, not even thinking that Lance would be leaving anytime soon.

“Uh yeah, unless of course you didn’t want me to, like if you need company or help.” Lance wasn’t expecting Keith to actually accept any of his offers, why would keith even what him there. 

“It sounds fun.. I guess, we can go back to the team later, unless you wanted to spend time with Hunk or Allura instead.” Lance was to busy cursing both of their awkwardness to register the hint of jealousy in Keith’s voice as he sat comfortably, playing with a loose thread on the blanket roof.

“No, they would be to busy to notice anyway. Are you sure you want me to stay?” Lanced finally voiced his insecurity. 

“Yeah I mean, you spent the time building it.”

“Well it wasn’t really that hard…”

“I mean it, come in here with me.”

“Um, okay” Lance got on all fours and climbed into the fort next to Keith, he crossed his legs and turned to face his friend who was already looking better than Lance had seen him in weeks.

“This is actually kinda fun… I never really got to do this as a kid, Shiro was sometimes up for it when he wasn’t at the garrison, but I didn’t really have anyone else around and it is kind of sad doing it alone.” Keith frowned at the floor. Lance had always been sad about his family after going into space, be had such good memories on Earth. Lance wondered whether Keith ever felt that; He was a lone wolf but still popular for being top of the class and a complete edgelord, but what if Keith was happier here, while Shiro was around.

“Wait! actually? This was a obligatory weekend activity at my house.” Lanced tried to cheer him up by sharing another happy memory of his own. 

“Wow! What else did you do in your family?” Asked keith hopefully. 

Lance went on and on for hours about things that he did with his family and friends in Cuba. He kept stopping to make sure that Keith was still listening or interested but everytime he looked over at the red paladin, he was wide eyed, eagerly listening. No one had ever found him interesting for this long. At some point Keith had even gotten up to get the blanket and pillow from the floor, wrapping the blanket around the both of them and continuing to listen. Lance guessed that all of the time Keith spent alone in the desert gave him the world’s longest attention span. Even he was tired of himself.

By what would have been around dinner time, both boys had grown tired and lied down next to each other under the blanket, Keith has brought up the fact that he hadn’t searched for Shrio today and he would have to start soon. Lance agreed solemnly. He wanted to tell Keith to rest, take a day off because he knew he needed it, but the exact same thought was nagging at the back of his head as well. 

Neither of them made any actual attempt to move however as they enjoyed their last peaceful moments before they would inevitably succumb to their anxieties. Lance heard Keith’s stomach rumble and rolled to face him.

“I should go see what goo is left okay. You don’t have to leave, I’ll bring it up to you then go back to work.” He said, already standing up to exit the fort. Keith only hummed in response sadly, watching as Lance left the black lion.

Lance entered the control room to see everyone in basically the same spot, except everyone had resigned to the floor where they continued to work in different positions. Lance felt a pang of guilt in his stomach. 

Hey everyone, are you guys hungry yet?” He asked the group. Allura was the first to raise her head in his direction.

“Oh Lance you’re back. Did you find Keith? You were gone for a while, what? two of your Earth hours?” She yawned.  
“Allura?” Lance asked, very concerned for his princess. “I’ve been gone all day. Have you taken a break yet? 

“Oh, really? Hmm, I guess time just slipped away from me while I searched these galaxies on the map.”

Lance looked around the room in horror. This was not a functional group of people. Hunk wasn’t even typing anymore, just staring at the screens that surrounded him. The mom friend was not in the right state of mind to look after his chickens anymore. Coran was moving in circles on the map, even though Lance assumed that he wasn’t aware. Pidge was awkwardly scrunched in a corner with her knees up, laptop at a forty five degree angle as it sat in her lap.

“You guys can’t work like this as much as you think you can. We can’t help Shiro if we can’t even help ourselves.” Lance was overrun with guilt. While he had been telling Keith about getting wasted at the drive-in, his team was practically killing themselves. 

He rushed around the room, refilling everyone's glass of water, bringing them leftover goo, and helping them all to bed. He scraped what was left onto a plate for Keith, deciding that what he did today was bad enough and that he could go without dinner tonight. 

He was doing his last rounds before bringing the plate back to Black, confiscating electronics, which was particularly difficult when it can to the actual gremlin that had become of Pidge, when he reached his last stop at Allura’s bedroom. 

“Hey, Princess, are you doing okay?” He said as he sat up in her bed, tucking the mice in next to her.

“Ha ha very funny Lance. Now isn’t the time for your flirting.” She mindlessly responded, not hearing what he had said at all. Lance brushed it off.

“Hey Allura?” He began to ask, before stopping himself. He wanted to ask if he could go to the space mall. He would say that he was going to take a short break from the search, but he had taken a big enough break already. He felt so guilty, he would make up for it so much over the next few days. It could wait.

“Um, sleep well.” After making sure she was asleep, which didn’t take long after her head hit the pillow, he turned her lights out and headed back to Keith. The red paladin was already asleep in the fort when Lance got back. A little burrito wrapped up in the blanket. Lance internally awed at the sleeping boy, taking in how peaceful he looked, despite his bags and stress lines that should belong to no one their age. 

He met his final destination in the control room, as his room was currently stripped of its blankets. At least here, he would be up early and ready to work. He would find Shiro and put everyone's minds at ease for once.  
_________________ 

Lance cherished every single memory he had of Earth, good and bad, it was just as well the good times with his family and friends were like a ten ton truck compared to a feather of the bad ones.

And just as much as Lance loved his own stories and memories, he found out quickly that the one thing he loved even more was being a part of Keith’s life in space as he got the chance to create his own.

Like how in the next few days the team made a breakthrough that almost slipped past them in their deprivation. They found traces of Zarkons fleet in one of the newer, lesser chartered zones of the universe that gave off a type of quintessence that matched that of the clone Shiro DNA that Pidge had sampled from when he had cut his hair.

Keith had stayed in Black to work and Lance had essentially moved right in with him. They lived in the fort by night and shared the pilot chair by day. It was never a problem as the large chair had plenty of room for the both of them to sit and work at the same screen together. Keith had fallen back, head on Lance’s lap, laughing for joy when the computer light turned green to symbolise that their hard work and long nights had lead to some sort of success. 

Lance had ended up taking that trip to the space mall. He was restocking the food and happened to find something akin to fairy lights in the Earth Store which he had hung up around the cockpit. Keith was entranced by them when he saw them, staring at them while Lance watched the tiny lights out of the reflection in Keith’s eyes. Keith recounted that he had seen girls at the Garrison with them in their dorms but never dared buy any for his own, besides, even if he could, with what money? 

Then there was the time when a long night of tracing maps of the ships that they had comprised into a short list of potential holding places caused the two boys to grow numbingly tired. They had moved base from the chair to the floor and then lying next to each other in the fort. Lance held the maps up to the fairy lights so that they two boys could see the penciled in lines through the illuminated paper. He traced them with his finger until he felt an arm drape across his chest.

He turned his head, frightened, to see that Keith had fallen asleep and rolled over closer to him subconsciously. Lance was too afraid to move him so just let him be, listening to the beat of his heart as he slept. Lance lied awake for hours after abandoning the maps off to his side and stared at the lights above him. It was that night when he realised that he was in love with the small boy tangled up in his limbs and the blanket over them. Every day spent just the two of them had been full of bonding moments and evolving their friendship which subsequently had caused him to fall deeper and deeper as each makeshift night fell upon the castle. 

Lance had woken before Keith the next morning to see that they were still in the same position. Lance could barely stay still at the sight of the gorgeous boy’s messy mop of hair pressed flat to his chest. He pretended to still be sleeping as he noticed the red paladin start to stir. Keith instantly grew tense at his own realisation but made no effort to move. He made the slightest move to look up at Lance, trying to decipher if he was awake. They both knew that he was. 

After all of this time however, it became a natural thing, especially after they started putting all of their drawn up plans into action. Each goodbye was met with a long hug, and each reunion was held in their fortress in tangled limbs and silence. They had grown too close to question it, and no one else even batted an eye. It wasn’t even made vocal when Lance pressed a kiss to Keith’s head one morning before he left in Red to search an abandoned piece of the ship that they had previously blown up when the team had defeated Zarkon. It had felt like millenniums ago but seeing it again made the loss fresh in Lance’s mind once more. 

Soon goodbye forehead kisses turned into hello cheek kisses, and then slowly into ‘I’m bored and tired’ pecks on the lips that lingered as neither paladin wanted it to end. It was never really discussed as it didn’t feel like it needed to be. Both of them being the pilot of the Red lion at some point meant that they relied on instinct, and both of their brains and gut feeling seemed to match, screaming at them to go ahead with it.

Lance was happy to be a part of Keith’s happy memories; and if every goodbye by kiss could turn out to be the last, Lance was happy to know that he got one and that the feeling was returned. 

In every ‘I love you’ and ‘i missed you’; and every ‘idiot’ or ‘you bastard’ when things went wrong, a feeling of warmth spread in Lance’s chest, making him believe that this suicide mission of a war might not be so bad. Each new day bought Shiro closer and closer to the team and Keith and Lance closer to each other.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this Drabble aka i'm just as tired as every character depicted in this story and I needed someone to relate to.
> 
> Please leave comments, I love hearing your feedback and I need it to improve my shitty writing.
> 
> Also feel free to leave a kudos because I crave validation.
> 
> ~Sarah


End file.
